Essence Of Maha Bhagavatha Purana

Hiranyakasipu and Prahlada

Continuing the story of the curse of Sage- Boys to the Gate Keepers of Vaikuntha, Suka Muni elaborated as to how Hiranyakasipu was enraged at the demise of his brother Hiranyaksha, when he sought to push the Planet of Earth into  Patala loka and the Incarnation of Lord Vishnu as the Great Boar killed him. To avenge the death of his brother, Hiranyakasupu performed unprecedented austerities to please Lord Brahma. The relentlessness of the austerities was such that fire emerged from the Demon’s ears and was spread over the entire Universe.

The Five Elements were shaken up and Demi-Gods appealed to Lord Brahma to intervene. As Brahma finally appeared before the Demon, the latter solicited immortality as his desire. As that would not be possible since every being in Creation would have to perish, then the Demon asked for boons that he would  be tantamount to immortality,ie he could be  killed by no living entity, demi-Gods, any power in the Universe, and  neither during day nor night. Thus having been empowered by the benedictions from Lord Brahma, Hiranyakasipu terrorised the entire Universe and insisted the he was God himself and as such be worshipped by one and all. His son Prahlada was a staunch devotee of Lord Narayana by birth and it became evident that the boy could not be stopped from worshipping the Lord. The Demon King engaged the sons of Guru Sukracharya, (the Head Priest of Demons), named Sanda and Amarka to use their entire patience and forbearance to convert Prahlada’s psyche away from the devotion to Narayana but to no avail. Hiranyakasipu tried the essence of the Four known means of ‘Sama’ ( Intense counseling or brain washing), ‘Dana’ ( Material benefits), ‘Bheda’ ( creating aversion against Narayana and appealing for filial duties) and finally the use of ‘Danda’ ( by creating scare of death or violence of extreme degrees).Prahlada became inflexible and took to extreme devotion of Narayana in the most desperate manner. So did the father who resorted to every possible means of killing the child.  An exasperated Demon King finally  asked the boy to show Narayana in a column of the Hall. Out came a roar of a frightful species of a mix of  man-lion entity who placed the strong body of the Demon King on the Lord’s thighs and tore of the Demon’s body to pieces. Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, the entire congregation of Demi-Gods led by Indra and the Great Sages appeared to witness how ‘Dharma’was revived as the destruction of the enormous Demon King was complete. It was possible for Prahlada alone to gradually bring down the huge fury of Lord Narasimha, Who was neither an animal nor a human being, nor any species of Brahma’s creation and the time of destruction was neither day nor night but dusk time, as per the Demon’s own charter of death wish! Hiranakasipu attained ‘Sarupya Mukti’ thereafter. Prahlada became a highly benevolent King  subsequently.